Sunday, May 10, 2015

1199 majority - thank you

I'm back in! My constituents in Whickham South and Sunniside kindly returned me to Gateshead Council with just over 50% of the vote and a majority of 1199. And whilst I would rather have my teeth pulled out without anaesthetic than rerun the general election outcome, the local election results in the wards were were defending in Gateshead were, relatively speaking, shining examples of hope. We were defending 3 seats and held all of them with increased majorities. We were also within 23 votes of taking Dunston Hill and Whickham East from Labour.

The votes in my ward (last year's in brackets) were:

Liberal Democrats 2399 (1511)

Labour 1200 (619)

Conservative 531 (214)

UKIP 503 (430)

Green 109 (-)

TUSC 41 (50)

If memory serves me correctly, this is the largest vote I've ever got in my ward (and I've been councillor here for 28 years). Labour Deputy Leader of Gateshead Council, Martin Gannon, announced during the election campaign that Labour were expecting to win my seat. I replied that I would be wiping the smug grin from his face by holding my seat. Martin, please be ready for your public face cleaning exercise. I'll bring appropriate cleaning materials to our next meeting!